The PRI, Famed for Stifling Challengers,
Is Experimenting With Open Primaries

By

Jose De Cordoba Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated July 1, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

CHIHUAHUA, Mexico -- This country's septuagenarian ruling party, the PRI, is showing some surprising signs of electoral pep these days. Even more surprising may be the reason: Haltingly but unmistakably, the PRI has begun to discover the merits of real democracy.

It is a radical step for the PRI, the Spanish abbreviation for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The PRI is the world's longest-ruling political party, and for much of its history has been an archetype of corrupt power in a one-party state, controlling...